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Scanning dynamic competitive landscapes: a market‐based and resource‐based framework
Author(s) -
Peteraf Margaret A.,
Bergen Mark E.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
strategic management journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 11.035
H-Index - 286
eISSN - 1097-0266
pISSN - 0143-2095
DOI - 10.1002/smj.325
Subject(s) - competitive advantage , resource (disambiguation) , equifinality , industrial organization , set (abstract data type) , dynamic capabilities , identification (biology) , economics , microeconomics , business , computer science , ecology , management , artificial intelligence , computer network , biology , programming language
Heterogeneity among rivals implies that each firm faces a unique competitive set, despite overlapping market domains. This suggests the utility of a firm‐level approach to competitor identification and analysis, particularly under dynamic environmental conditions. We take such an approach in developing a market‐based and resource‐based framework for scanning complex competitive fields. By facilitating a search for functional similarities among products and resources, the framework reveals relevant commonalities in an otherwise heterogeneous competitive set. Beyond its practical contribution, the paper also advances resource‐based theory as a theory of competitive advantage. Most notably, we show that resource substitution conditions not only the sustainability of a competitive advantage, but the attainment of competitive advantage as well. With equifinality among resources of different types, the rareness condition for even temporary competitive advantage must include resource substitutes. It is not rareness in terms of resource type that matters, but rareness in terms of resource functionality. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.